Building Power, Together: A Labor Day Message from the North Shore AFL-CIO
Happy Labor Day! Our labor federation has so much to celebrate this year. From supporting workers organizing to showing up when workers are under attack. From encouraging members to exercise their full rights and responsibilities of citizenship to supporting union members on the ballot. We are leaders in responding to artificial intelligence transforming the workplace, and we are building relationships, leadership, and infrastructure that will allow Northeast Ohio's labor movement to meet the challenges ahead.
Our Political Program & Path to Power
We are proud to have more than two dozen union members on the ballot this November here in Cuyahoga County and we are working hard to knock doors and phone bank members to get them through to victory. Iron Worker Local 17 member Brian Poindexter is running for Congress in the 7th district and six union members running for the General Assembly. Next year, we can boast more union members serving in the Ohio House and Senate than any other labor council in the country. This is a true demonstration of the importance of a robust Path to Power program that identifies, recruits, and supports union members and their spouses who are willing to run for public office. Later this month, we'll introduce a resolution at the Ohio AFL-CIO Convention calling on our state federation to invest in and expand on the model we've built here in Cleveland.
Legislative Advocacy
We won't stop there either. We're busy developing a Working Families Agenda, built with the help of our summer policy intern, that will serve as an index of legislation for state and local leaders to go on the offense to support union members.
We've seen solid policy progress this year too. Federation members helped advance the Faster Labor Contracts Act, federal legislation designed to speed up the process of securing first contracts for newly organized workers. The bill passed the U.S. House 230–193 after a year of lobbying by Federation members, including outreach to Rep. Dave Joyce, who ultimately voted for the legislation. This legislation would help with at least a half-dozen stalled bargaining efforts here locally and is currently in the Senate.
Closer to home, Cleveland strengthened protections for health care workers by increasing penalties for menacing, and State Rep. Sean Brennan's bill to rename the I-480 and West 150th Street interchange in honor of BLET Division 607 President Louis P. Shuster finally became law. And we've had numerous meetings with state and local lawmakers on meaningful legislation, from labor peace agreements to guardrails on artificial intelligence.
Workers First Initiative on AI
We are in a technological revolution. Artificial intelligence is changing how employers hire, schedule, evaluate, and monitor workers. As technology transforms the workplace, we're fighting to ensure workers will have a voice in deciding how that transformation happens.
We were the first central labor council in the country to deliver the AFL-CIO's Workers First Initiative on Artificial Intelligence to its members. Through a partnership with Case Western Reserve and Brown universities, and with financial support from grant funding, we hosted the first Workers First Summit on AI, bringing together more than 70 union members, educators, researchers, and elected officials for a day focused on the future of work. The message was clear: technology should work for workers, not against them.
Through the Summit, we identified two priorities: members need the tools to respond to new technologies in their workplace, and lawmakers need to work on meaningful guardrails. So, this summer, we hosted Brown University research student Sonya Rashkovan, who began working one-on-one with members to learn how AI is affecting the workforce in Northeast Ohio. The research will conclude next spring, but it has already spawned the creation of a technologies bargaining working group to identify common priorities and develop model contract language.
Policy Matters Ohio is currently conducting research to identify specific policy needs. Later this month, we will introduce a resolution at the Ohio AFL-CIO Convention to hopefully make this a statewide initiative. We're doing good things here in Cleveland, and our whole movement does better when we share those successes with other central and state labor federations. When our federation builds power, workers build power.
Building Power
Real power is built through relationships, leadership, and the capacity to bring people together around a common purpose. This year, the Federation strengthened all three.
At the AFL-CIO's 30th Constitutional Convention in Minneapolis, North Shore AFL-CIO leaders and staff helped shape the national labor movement's agenda. Six members of our Executive Board and staff attended, giving Cleveland labor a strong voice on the national stage as we adopted 19 resolutions addressing organizing, democracy, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, and other priorities for the next five years.
Executive Secretary Brian Pearson joined leaders from the D.C. Metro, Nashville, Chicago, and Colorado federations to discuss the significance of the Labor in the Pulpit program. This program may be overlooked by many members, but we share so many values, like a commitment to human dignity, economic justice, and standing with the vulnerable. We have the only labor-faith program in the state, and this year we will visit six different congregations from the United Church of Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the Catholic Church.
Through community partnerships and service, we are demonstrating that unions are not separate from our communities—we are part of them. Our Union Veterans Council returned to Holy Cross Cemetery this year to help in the massive effort to place flags at the graves of 18,000 veterans. We are also leaning into our partnership with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, joining 270 volunteers for their 211 Day of Action. Through that program, we have a Blessing Box at the Memorial–Nottingham Branch of the Cleveland Public Library with essential items to those in need.
We also had another chance to showcase what we're building to the national AFL-CIO. Cleveland was selected as one of only two locations nationwide for the AFL-CIO's Labor 2026 Release Staff Political Academy Bootcamp. Hundreds of union members from across the country came to Cleveland to receive training in member engagement, volunteer recruitment, campaign operations, and data management. This was the third time in the last year that the AFL-CIO came to town. Last August, the Organizing Institute returned for the first time in nearly 25 years and we were a stop on the "It's Better in a Union" Bus Tour, which included the Dropkick Murphys and national labor leaders like Shawn Fain.
Organizing
We're also a year into Unionize Cleveland, an innovative multi-union, regional organizing program that is bringing affiliates together from every sector and industry in a unique way. UnionizeCLE.org is serving as an important front door for people to connect with union organizers. Our role in organizing is to drive up organizing leads for our affiliates and to make sure no workers fall through the cracks. Recently, we accepted additional grant funding from the National AFL-CIO to help expand this program—and there is so much more to come.
We've been proud to stand alongside workers organizing in some of the region's most important institutions and workplaces—like MetroHealth primary care providers and University Hospitals doctors. We saw many victories this year too, from private-sector and nonprofit wins at Rising Star Coffee and Signal Ohio to public-sector wins at the Brecksville Service Department and Geauga County ADP.
Mobilizing
Unfortunately, the work doesn't end when workers win recognition. The hardest work can sometimes come in the fight for a first contract. We continue to support affiliates in those battles, including REI Union Cleveland, where workers have now spent more than three years pushing for a first contract, and SEIU District 1199 members at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, who have spent two years fighting for their first contract.
On that note, we've continued to mobilize around our affiliate members. This year, we showed up and repeatedly demonstrated what solidarity looks like, from a rally in six inches of snow in Lakewood to defend Social Security as staffing cuts and office closures threatened the program's ability to serve the people who depend on it. We stood with physicians fighting at University Hospitals, helping deliver 8,000 signatures demanding that Dr. Lauren Beene and Dr. Valerie Fouts-Fowler be reinstated and that physicians be allowed to organize and advocate for their patients without retaliation. We stood with SEIU District 1199 caregivers rallying at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital and were involved at every step in the fight for Cleveland Public Library workers to get a fair contract. And just the other day, we joined a press conference with the world-renowned musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra, fighting for better pay, safety, and a stronger voice on the job.
Our Growth
All of this hard work has led to growing energy around our Federation. This year, we've added several new affiliates and 2,000 members. We're communicating better than ever through our social media pages, which have grown by thousands of followers, our monthly newsletter and the federation bulletin, and the Labor in the Land Podcast. Thank you to Vice President Hector Alvarado from Utility Workers Local G-555 for hosting.
We're making smart strategic choices too, and setting the Federation up for long-term success.
We must thank each of our 152 affiliate unions and organizations and their leadership, as well as our 400+ delegates who continue to show up and guide the Federation. There are countless more who attend committee meetings or other federation events too. We owe all of our success to those members who spend their time fighting for a better life, not just for their members, but for all workers. I must also thank our incredible staff, including Office Manager Karen Rechenbach, who is in her 51st year serving our movement, and our talented Political Director, Rebecca Gorski. I owe so much to all of you.
We're not done. But Labor Day is a chance to pause and celebrate, and to remember the people who worked hard to build this movement and who are working hard every single day to keep our Federation strong.
Happy Labor Day from all of us at the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor.